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Friday, December 30, 2016

It's the last challenge of the year! I hope that 2016 has been good to you and you're excited about 2017! We had a great year in 2016 filled with more blessings than we deserve and we are anxious to see what the new year brings. God is good - all the time!

So since it's Friday - that means there is a new challenge over at TGIF Challenges! Our new end of the month challenge shines the spotlight on a design team member and this month is the lovely Kaitlyn Zumbach! I absolutely adore Kaitlyn's style - it's simple yet detailed and it really shows a lot of different elements while keeping things easy. You might recognize some of her work in SU's catalogs and promotional flyers. Kaitlyn is a concept designer that works at Stampin' Up! in Utah. Lucky girl!

I found this card on Kaitlyn's instagram account, but you can find it on her website - Create with Kaitlyn - by clicking on the image above. I liked the look of this card with the angled rectangles and thought it'd be a perfect layout for the new Cupcakes & Carousels stamp set and coordinating DSP.

I also really like this sentiment but didn't want to cover up the horse too much.

A little flicker of the Aqua Painter with Early Espresso ink to give the card a little extra detail.

There you have it! I hope you like the card and join us this week at TGIF Challenges! Browse Kaitlyn's blog and be inspired by her awesome work!

I will announce the winner for my birthday giveaway this weekend too! I haven't forgotten! You can still sign up for my newsletter here.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

I have some fun cards for you today! But before we start, have you entered my BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY?? I started sending out a newsletter a few times a month and I'm looking for NEW NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS - not just blog followers! Make sure you sign up for my newsletter. Follow the birthday giveaway link!

So today I have 3 cards using a new set from Stampin' Up! called Everyday Hero. This is such a great set - for boys and girls - young and old! I loved the old Calling All Heroes set from Stampin' Up! and was sad to see it go. This set though far exceeds the other! I think you'll agree!

I started by picking out this new designer series paper (DSP) called Urban Underground. This is another sneak peek at some great masculine paper in the new catalog. I decide to use Emerald Envy and Crushed Curry to offset the dark gray and black.

This set comes with a "D" and an "M" for dad and mom - but I decided to turn the M sideways for an "E" for our little Eli. Perfect card for his lunchbox!

To create a longer skyline, I first stamped the image on thin computer paper - I find this paper makes the best masks. Fussy cut as best as you can around the image to blend the images together.

This next card is so sweet! I love the little sentiment. :)

And it just so happens that the star from the Brights Enamel Shapes fits perfectly on the stamped star!

Lastly, I made a card with my mom in mind! Superheroes can have grey hair too I think!

The background sentiment is made with two separate stamps. Because this set is photopolymer, this was easy to line up!

I made the skyline the same with the masking technique. This time I stamped on two different grays. I really like how this turned out!

I hope you like this set! I'm considering having this set as part of an upcoming Stamps in the Mail kit. If this is a set you think you'd consider, please let me know!

Monday, December 19, 2016

Today is my 31st birthday and I want to thank my followers and friends by having a giveaway!

EDITED:I may have been a little misleading. I would love if you would subscribe to my newsletternot just my blog posts. I recently started sending a newsletter out a few times a month. Please make sure you're signing up for my newsletter! :) I will receive an email stating that I have a new subscriber!

There are TWO ways to enter!

1- If you are already receiving my newsletter, please leave a comment on this post telling me that you are already a subscriber!

2- If you do not receive my newsletter, please click on the image below to subscribe to my list!

*If you're not sure if you're on my list, the pop-up will tell you whether you are a subscriber or not*

Contest will end Friday December 23rd at 8:00pm CST! Open to US residents only (sorry!)

Friday, December 16, 2016

I'm not quite to the point where I'm feeling blue about all of the snow and cold weather, but if you ask me this weekend I might change my mind. We are supposed to get 5" of snow this afternoon and Saturday's overnight low is -24 with a windchill of -40... I think we will be streaming our church service live in our pjs!

So to go along with today's forecast, the new challenge over at TGIF Challenges is "Let It Snow".

So appropriate :) Be sure to click here to see the rest of the design team's creations and play along!

Forgive me for my poor lighting. It's after 11pm and I just got back from Christmas shopping. Santa only works when 3 little kids are in bed, right?

For the background, I embossed the snowflake from the Stitched with Cheer stamp set onto watercolor paper. Then I used two different coloring techniques - Pool Party with my Aqua Painter and Bermuda Bay in the Spritzer.

I added some silver splatter by mixing Tombow Glue and water with my Aqua Painter, adding some Silver Emboss Powder and heat setting it with the Heat Tool.

For the sentiment, I used my Pool Party and Bermuda Bay Stampin' Write Markers. The sentiment is from Wonder of Christmas.

I hope you enjoyed this card! If you're in for a snowy weekend, stay warm!

Monday, December 12, 2016

Fortunately, last night I had a bunch of new stamp sets scattered on my table while I worked on a few cards for a friend using Beautiful You. That's when, in the corner of my eye, I caught the Chase Your Dreams set and I was inspired to combine the two sets!

The results are pretty awesome if I may say so myself. I'm loving these two sets together! I really like the Chase Your Dreams set but hadn't figured out a card with it yet. This was a happy little marriage of stamps!

I made 3 cards with this set for a friend's granddaughters - 17, 15 & 14. She said the oldest liked vintage style and I think this silhouette is the "most vintage" of the 3. I decided to tie in the French sophisticated look with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

I made a simple and stepped of version of this card. You can see the beautiful watercoloring on the simpler card. This was done with the new Watercolor Pencils and an Aqua Painter on Shimmery White CS.

For the stepped up version I added a small bow made with the Smoky Slate 1/8" Stitched Ribbon. I added Stampin' Dimensionals to the sentiment to make it stand out a little more.

For the second card, I took the single skyscraper from Chase Your Dreams and stamped the image at different heights across the base of the card. I also only inked parts of the skyscraper to change the skyline. I filled in any lines with a Project Life Journaling Pen (the 01 size).

My favorite part of this card is the angled sentiment. I actually only stamped it at an angle to fit on the scrap of black cardstock, but when I went to cut it out, I thought it looked neat like this. I added some Blooms & Wishes DSP to both the umbrella and behind the sentiment, finishing it off with Black Metallic Thread, a Delicate White Doily and some Daffodil Delight Enamel Dots (Brights Collection).

This second card I went on a whim with the sketch from Global Design Project this week. I flipped the sketch on it's side and played off the greeting and line (bow) part of the sketch. I think that's what make sketches fun - not everyone sees the same thing when they look at it! (I flipped the icon just to help you imagine it!) Be sure to head to GDP and check out the rest of the cards for inspiration!

Have a blessed week! I will be enjoying my last week being 3-0. My birthday is in a week! Make sure you come back to celebrate with me!

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Forgive me for taking a much needed break from making Christmas cards, but I needed to make a birthday and I'm super excited to share this one with you! If you're not familiar with the Sale-A-Bration (SAB) promotion coming up Jan 4th through March 31st, you're in for a treat! For every $50 you spend on product (out of the annual catalog, occasions catalog or the clearance rack), you earn a free product from the Sale-A-Bration catalog! There are 7 stamp sets, packs of designer paper, ribbon packs and more to choose from! Next to Christmas, it's one of the best times of the year! :)

One of the 7 stamp sets that you can earn FREE is called Tasty Trucks. I'm loving this fun little food truck. When I first saw it in the Sale-a-Bration catalog, I knew that I wanted it right away. It so stinkin' cute! The sentiments are a nice variety too.

I needed to make my good friend Jenna a card and get it in the mail today. Her birthday is Saturday, so I'm hoping it will be there on time! Jenna really likes tacos, so I made her this fun taco truck card!

I started by stamping the little tacos all across the background layer. I'm glad I covered up a few of the crooked ones =)

And isn't that "let's taco 'bout how awesome you are" sentiment so fun? :) I love it!

Another new product that Stampin' Up! is releasing in January as part of their Occasions Catalog are the Watercolor Pencils. These color great on their own, with and Aqua Painter or with our Blender Pens.

I used a Blender Pen to color the truck in with a few of the pencils. I really like that SU! chose a good variety of colors - not just a specific color collection.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek! We are off to meet our Kindergartner for lunch!

Monday, December 5, 2016

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by today! I have a clean and simple (CAS) card for you today! I am so honored (or honoured as Kylie told me they say in Australia) to be a guest designer for the Global Design Project this week. Last month my Beautiful You card was chosen as the winner so I was given this opportunity to participate as a design team member for the following color challenge! I hope you take a moment to check out the rest of the design team's creations and play along!

This color combo didn't really speak anything else to me except Christmas! And to be quite honest, I reeeeally didn't want to make another Christmas card. But I am super happy with the one I did end up making and I think you'll like it too!

I used the Foxy Friends Bundle to create this cute little reindeer. I added some (noncentered) legs with Crumb Cake ink, some Early Espresso antlers and a cute little Real Red nose from the Brights Enamel Shapes pack. I originally was going to use a real red Project Life card from the Hello December kit, but then I remembered I never put together my Make-n-Take from OnStage, so I had a piece of the Sending Love Designer Series Paper Stack from the upcoming Occasions Catalog.

To elongate the square from the Stitched Shapes Framelits, I simply diecut and extra piece and covered it with the sentiment. The Christmas blessing sentiment comes from the Wonder of Christmas stamp set.

This is not a typical card I make - I'm not a real CAS kind of stamper - but I'm thinking this would be one cute card to make multiples of! The reindeer is easy to make with the Fox Builder punch.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Welcome to our Creation Station blog hop. We are a group of international SU! demos that blog on the first Sunday of the month. This month we are highlighting ways to package gifts and such with products from Stampin' Up!

If you came from the lovely Sara Levin - thank you for continuing on to me! I originally wanted to show you two ways to use the 6"x17" gusseted bags and realized after I uploaded my pictures that I never slipped the bottle into the second bag. Either way, I'm happy with the results!

I took a piece of Candy Cane Lane DSP and made a sturdy base for the puppy chow to sit in.

I used the Cheerful Tags Dies to make the two tags and used the Yummy Little Christmas for the sentiments. I love these tag dies - I'm so glad I borrowed my MIL's set so I could get an idea whether I'd like them - I think you would too! I cut about 4" off the top of the bag and folded it over instead of bunching it up and tying it. I like the look!

For the bottle tag, I took another piece of the designer series paper (DSP) and added some Gold Glimmer Paper cut with the beautiful, intricate die. This bottle tag also has two slots to slid ribbon through for an extra detail. Another sentiment from the Yummy Little Christmas set to tie it all together.

I hope that you like my tags! These awesome framelits are carrying over to the new catalog so you will be able to buy them even after the holiday catalog ends Jan 3rd! Woohoo!

I hope you continue around the hop! I know you will find some amazing ideas for your holiday gift giving! You can head back to the talented Sara Levin or on to the next - my soon to be Artisan teammate - Kimberly Van Diepen!

Have a wonderful week!

-Holly

*Must use hostess code P7M6WKNQ to receive the gift*

**Do not use a hostess code with an order over $150 - I will still send a gift, but YOU will receive the hostess rewards!**

Friday, December 2, 2016

Our older two boys have been asking almost everyday for a week now when it will be December 1st.. You think that I would've seen it coming!

Let the countdown begin to Christmas Day! We have a very fitting color combo for you at TGIF Challenges this week, but don't let it keep you from thinking outside the box!

I wanted to highlight this fun stitched star from the Stitched with Cheer Kit. This kit is now on sale for $14(USD) and you get supplies to make 18 cards with envelopes! What a steal! These cards a detailed and are so fun to make - definitely worth spending $14 on. You just need the matching stamp set! :)

Here is the original use of the star on one of the pre-printed card bases:

I decided to take the star and add it to a completely different card.

I made the watercolor background on Shimmery White CS. I first wet the cardstock (you can use a Spritzer or use an Aqua Painter) and then immediately stamped the "smear" image from Perpetual Birthday in Old Olive ink. I used my Heat Tool to die the cardstock and then added some splatter using my Aqua Painter and the splatter stamp from Timeless Textures in Early Espresso ink.

I added the sentiment and holly leaves from the Stitched with Cheer stamp set. I also added a few Old Olive Enamel Dots from the Halloween Haunts Enamel Dots pack. (On sale for $2.20!)

The envelopes that come in the Stitched with Cheer Kit have coordinating envelope liners to match each card. I absolutely love that extra detail!

I hope that you join us this week at TGIF Challenges! I know that life is busy around the holidays, but take a moment to stamp - you'll be happy you did!

Be sure to check out the rest of the team's designs on the main challenge page.